AFT boss Randi Weingarten to be grilled on COVID closings

American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten will appear before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic later this month — setting up a showdown over her support for keeping classrooms closed long after most parents and lawmakers insisted they reopen.

A committee spokeswoman confirmed to The Post Tuesday that Weingarten will be the star witness at the panel’s April 26 hearing, titled “The Consequences of School Closures.” The 65-year-old’s appearance was first reported by The Hill.

The hearing comes almost exactly two years after The Post revealed that Weingarten coordinated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on its school-reopening guidance released in February 2021, even suggesting certain language that was included in the final text of the CDC document.

“Keeping America’s children in schools should have been the top priority of every governmental organization, school district, and teachers union across our country,” subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) told The Post.

“Even after data confirmed that the ‘science’ did not justify prolonged school closures, Ms. Weingarten and AFT fought to keep our children away from a healthy and successful learning environment by influencing CDC school reopening guidance,” he added.

“I look forward to hearing Ms. Weingarten’s testimony and learning the truth about the role AFT played in promoting unscientific school closures that harmed the academic, mental, physical, and social development of our youth.”

Emails between the CDC, AFT and the White House in February 2021 show the teachers union slow-walked a return to in-person learning.

Kelly Trautner, AFT’s senior director for health issues, successfully lobbied the health agency to adopt a provision that let schools in communities with high COVID transmission rates opt out of in-person instruction — despite data that repeatedly showed schools were among the safest places from the virus.

The teachers union also worked out special remote-work arrangements for teachers who claimed to suffer higher risks from COVID-19.

Wenstrup and GOP lawmakers on the subcommittee sent more than a dozen letters to federal agencies like the CDC and labor groups including AFT last month that asked for further details about their conversations over school closures.

The panel is “concerned about the potential for undue influence of non-governmental groups on CDC scientific guidance,” wrote Wenstrup, who is also a doctor — adding that the AFT “is a political union, not a professional scientific or medical organization.”

“Even as reliable health data became available, instead of prioritizing the health and education of America’s children, the Biden Administration prioritized its political allies’ desires,” Wenstrup said in his letter.

AFT gave more than $2.3 million to Democratic candidates during the 2022 election cycle, according to the political donation tracking website OpenSecrets.